Makoto Niijima
Profile After the murder of her father in the line of duty three years ago in 2019, Makoto is deeply apologetic that her elder sister Sae has to shoulder the burden of supporting the whole family on her own. Makoto studies really hard so that she can enter a top notch university and relieve Sae's burden once she graduates. Now a third-year honor student and the president of the student council in Shujin Academy, she is asked by Principal Kobayakawa to investigate the possibility that the Phantom Thieves are students from their school after their volleyball coach, Suguru Kamoshida's confession and arrest. She accepts the request and is quick to deduce that the protagonist and the others are the Phantom Thieves and starts to approach them. Ann Takamaki, in particular, does not like her presence due to a rumor that says Makoto was aware of Kamoshida's true nature but kept quiet about it like everyone else to maintain a paragon image before the faculties and receive recommendation for her own benefit, a thought that Ann bitterly tells to Makoto, which disturbs her. She begins to tail them for a while, especially the protagonist, following him whenever he is in school or even as far as Shibuya. On June 11th, Makoto finally confirms her suspicions when Ryuji Sakamoto declares out loud in the courtyard of Shujin Academy that they are the Phantom Thieves. However, she decides not to give this proof to Kobayakawa and instead demands the Phantom Thieves to prove their justice by reforming an unknown mafia boss who has been extorting many students around Shibuya including those go to Shujin Academy. If they can complete the task, she will not expose their identities to anyone. Deep down, Makoto actually approves of the thieves and believes her father would think the same way. This belief annoys Sae and she blurts out that Makoto is a burden to her during a heated debate. Makoto checks on the group as they have trouble reaching the center of mafia boss Junya Kaneshiro's Palace. Ann, Ryuji and Yusuke point out how useless she is for not doing anything that can help them but rely on the hard works of somebody else, something that greatly upsets Makoto after being told the same thing before by her sister and remembers Goro Akechi's words about her being a pushover. To prove her worth, Makoto purposely acts as bait into the mafia so that the gang can follow behind. Once there, Kaneshiro takes photos of the group being merely present in his adult-exclusive nightclub for blackmail material. He demands 3 million yen within 3 weeks for the photos which will ruin their reputations if leaked; additionally, if they cannot pay the 3 million yen, he would force Makoto into prostitution to pay back the debt, adding that he may even keep Sae as his personal slave. Makoto apologizes for her rash action and explains how this folly could ruin Sae's effort in raising her. She tries to think of a way to pay Kaneshiro, but Morgana suggests to make her an ally by bringing her along to Kaneshiro's Palace because she is now the "special customer" to Kaneshiro's extortion business. Entering the metaverse, a passageway is opened to allow the thieves and Makoto to access Kaneshiro's "floating bank." Makoto is confronted by Shadow Kaneshiro who taunts her by revealing his plan to extort her sister. Angered and disgusted by Kaneshiro, Makoto awakens her Persona power of Johanna and decides to join the Phantom Thieves. After changing Kaneshiro's heart, she receives a call from Kaneshiro who tells her he has deleted the photos and is going to turn himself in, relieving Makoto and the others. She then reports to Kobayakawa that she concludes her investigation of the Phantom Thieves by simply telling him that the Phantom Thieves are justice and she does not have any proof that the Thieves are in their school, much to Kobayakawa's dismay. She even declines his recommendation letter for university when Kobayakawa persuades her once more. Upon showing her support for the Phantom Thieves, Makoto accepts Ann's apology for wrongly accusing her previously. Makoto asks if she can address Ann directly by her given name and without honorific, to which Ann happily agrees. Makoto also begins to act as a vice leader of the Phantom Thieves by proposing direction and trouble solution for the gang. She goes so far that she installs a spyware written by Futaba Sakura in Sae's laptop so the gang can learn the investigation progress of the Prosecutors Office. Etymology Niijima means 新(New)島 (Island) 真 (True) (New island of truth) Personality Despite being the student council president, Makoto is an extremely unpopular student at Shujin Academy; due to her not doing anything to stop Kamoshida's abuse, she is considered by all the students to be an arrogant, selfish control freak who knew about the abuse but chose to do nothing about it because she only cared about getting a good letter of recommendation. While she does give off the impression of this during the Phantom Thieves' first few encounters with her, these rumors are ultimately revealed to be just that: rumors. In truth, the abuse outraged Makoto, but she didn't feel like she had the power to anything about it. In fact, Makoto holds no real authority in the school, with her position merely making her a glorified tool for the principal to use however he sees fit. Feeling overshadowed by her highly successful older sister, Makoto has almost no sense of self-worth, and so has made a habit of keeping her nose down and doing what is expected of her. Her submissive nature is noted by Akechi, who condescendingly refers to her as "the good-girl type of pushover." After getting involved with the Phantom Thieves, however, Makoto realizes her frustration at the authority figures around her not living up to the expectations they've set for themselves, and vows from then on to fight for what she believes in, which triggers the awakening of her Persona. After the group defeat Kaneshiro, Makoto decides to stay with the Phantom Thieves, saying that she's done being the "exemplary honour student" and that she's going to try to be more honest with herself. Despite appearing prim and proper on the surface, Makoto is actually more of a tomboy; she's trained in aikido (though she's never seen using it onscreen), enjoys violent action movies, never wears skirts other than her school uniform (which she wears leggings under) and seems to care little about fashion other than the headband she wears in her hair. Makoto is also something of a tsundere; while she's mostly a kind person, she can also be very bossy and is harshly critical of those who don't live up to her expectations, particularly Ryuji, whose case she constantly gets on due to his consistently nonchalant approach to school life, implying that she's a perfectionist. She also has a ton of repressed anger issues over being made to stand on a pedestal by adults who don't follow the same standards themselves, and as such has the worst temper of the group bar none, to the point that even Ryuji, who's quite short-tempered himself, often warns the others not to get her bad side. Additionally, when the group are helping Futaba become more sociable, Makoto's among the least considerate, even expressing disappointment about not being able to take Futaba into crowds of people merely a few days after they started helping her. Makoto can also be a hypocrite at times; when she first joins the team, she criticizes the others for performing their heists without a proper strategy, yet conveniently ignores the fact that only a few days before, she threw herself into Kaneshiro's territory with no plan of any kind out of a desperate attempt to please her sister, which resulted in the entire team getting blackmailed. Nevertheless, Makoto ultimately cares a great deal about her friends, and does not hesitate to praise them when she feels that they've earned it. Gallery B33C3410-92CF-4404-AF8C-513BCC3C34A1.png|Makoto as a child back in her flasback scene in Persona 5 The Animation 27193513-A255-4467-8660-D892487B1968.jpeg|Makoto’s Bikini outfit drawn by Shigenori Soejima File:Phantom_Thieves.jpeg|Makoto on the middle of the Phantom Thieves File:Makoto’s_MMD_model_by_TwoSided_MMD.png|Makoto’s MMD model File:Makoto_art.jpeg|Makoto Artwork for Persona 5 Animation DE1B2BE2-3E08-4A4A-9F6C-6A83DBC406CB.jpeg|Makoto’s Featured art in the Persona 5 Anime preview C0D5085B-83AF-4BEA-B7E2-5227BE52CBF3.png|Makoto at the age of 15 in her Father’s Funeral in 2019, after her father passed away File:Ren_and_Ann_makoto.png|thumb|Makoto with Ren Amamiya and Ann Takamaki File:Makoto_in_P5A_.png|thumb|Makoto in the last credits of Persona 5 The Animation File:Makoto_bed.png|thumb|Makoto in bed with her head tilted up File:Ann_and_Makoto.png|thumb|Makoto with Ann Takamaki on the credits File:Makoto_PQ2_.png|Makoto in PQ2 File:Queen_in_PQ2.png|Queen in PQ2 Cameo Makoto was annouced on TV in the specific day when Ryan was arrested on April 28th for the sexual assault of Reina Kojima and Azumi Fujikawa a few weeks prior to the arrest of Ryan, the announcer talks about a Young College Student from Shibuya-ku who is the first Prosecutor to be hired as one in the young age of 21, and was Presenting Evadence that Ryan was Still found Guilty, and will not be out for Parole Makoto, presented the case successfully, ending the Cruciatiality of Ryan In the scene during Episode 10, she convinces Ryan to tell him his personal information regarding on what he did with Reina and Azumi Trivia * Makoto is born on April 23, making her the same Birthday as formal voice Actor EllaGamerPlayz * Makoto seems to not change over the years, and it is heavily implied when she makes an appearance on TV *The only drastic appearance on Makoto’s Older appearance is that her hair became much longer as it did in Persona 5 *the song that was popular on her birthday was Yeah ft Lin Jon, and Ludacris Category:Cameo Characters Category:Born in the 2000s Category:2004 Births